Colin Webster (UC Davis) will join us next week to give a lecture 10/29 at 12:30pm in 320. 

 

Dr. Webster’s talk will trace the history of Greco-Indian medical interactions in antiquity, promising new insights into this important arena of transcultural exchange. 

 

For more information, contact Prof. Calloway Scott.

 Talk: Greco-Indian Medical Interactions

This talk explores connections between early Greek medical systems and classical Ayurveda by examining the resemblance of the theories, therapies, and materia medica within these two healing traditions. The Hippocratic corpus, a group of early Greek medical texts from the fifth century BCE, presents multiple humoral theories that explain illness as the imbalance of a few primary pathological substances (often bile and phlegm, but also potentially black bile, blood, water, and pneuma/air). Similarly, canonical Ayurvedic medical texts, like the Caraka Samhita, propose that illnesses arise from imbalances in three primary doshas (kapha/phlegm, pitta/bile, and vata/wind). Both traditions hold that these primary pathological substances are impacted by the season and should be treated through regimen-based approach to diet and exercise. When illnesses manifest, stronger cures include emesis, laxatives, enemas, oil massage, and sweating. Beyond basic theoretical and therapeutic similarities, other specific overlaps occur, including the prominence of barley gruel as a medicinal base and the use of long pepper in aphrodisiacs. By examining the timeline of interaction between these two regions and examining the movement of pharmaka between India and the Mediterranean, this talk traces the threads of interaction established by soldiers, plants, resins, traders, envoys, and empires.